Scientists in the UK believe they may have found a cheap, low-tech way to help combat age-related vision loss. In a small clinical trial, people over 40 who were told to look at a deep red light for three minutes a day had noticeable improvements in their eyesight. They reported that they could see better in the dark and better distinguish colors.
Red light is already commonly used as skin treatment. The idea is that the longest wavelengths of light have a unique regenerative effect on mitochondria, the parts of a cell that process the body’s fuel to keep it running. These wavelengths range from just behind the point where we stop seeing visible light (deep red) to infrared light. Mitochondria absorb this energy, which is theorized to improve performance. That, in turn, is supposed to improve the body’s ability to heal wounds, reduce inflammation and pain, and even regrow hair, depending on where the light is applied.
Mitochondria are found in almost all cell types. But they are especially abundant in the retina, the thin layer of the eye that captures light from the outside world and translates it into information that is sent to the brain. Without the retina, we simply couldn’t see. But as we age, retinal mitochondria begin to break down at a faster rate than mitochondria elsewhere. This dysfunction is thought play a crucial role in decreasing our age-related vision as well as other degenerative eye disorders.
The authors of this new study, published In The Journals of Gerontology, he had previously experimented with mice, bees, and flies, discovering that red light could improve retinal performance in all three.
In this trial, they recruited 24 people between the ages of 28 and 72, all with no known eye problems. For two weeks, the volunteers were told to look at a red light “torch” for three minutes every day, a device that cost the researchers approximately $ 15. Before and after the experiment, they performed tests that measured how well they could see in the dark (a test of the retinal rods) and how well they could see the contrast between the colors (a test of the retinal cones).
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In those younger than 40 years, the average performance on tests remained the same before and after therapy. But for people over 40, they performed better on both tests after therapy. The improvement was statistically significant for both tests, although people generally performed better on the color contrast test.
“Our study shows that it is possible to significantly improve vision that has decreased in elderly people through simple brief exposures to wavelengths of light that recharge the energy system that has decreased in the cells of the retina, instead of recharging a battery, “lead author Glen Jeffery, an eye researcher at University College London, said in a statement published by the University
The results are certainly interesting, but it will require more studies involving many, many more people to know if such therapy is really effective. While red light therapy is unlikely to be dangerous (also called low light therapy, since the heat generated by it does not harm cells), its actual track record for any number of potential health applications remains largely anecdotal and unproven.
This does not mean that these results are not valid or that someday we will not recommend a daily dose of red light to elderly people concerned about their sight. It just means we have to be careful and wait for more tests to come before we all start looking at the red lanterns.
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